fifty five.

It was a beautiful, sunny day in Alexandria. Daryl had decided to go out on a small solo excursion a few hours ago, leaving me at home on the couch but not without a small argument before he left. I decided to make myself busy in his absence by getting into a fresh set of clothes from our closet and sitting down with a book while Carol was throwing together a casserole in the kitchen. As I read I found myself feeling Daryl's absence, more worried about him than the words on the pages in front of me. I sighed, putting down my book.

"Daryl said he'd be back soon," I worried aloud. "It's been like three hours."

"It's Daryl, he'll be fine," Carol reassured me with a smile on her face. "It's not healthy to worry, sweetheart."

"I know," I muttered. "I can't help it." I was still nervous without him by my side in this new community even though it'd already been a few weeks since we've arrived. It was gonna take a while until I was completely comfortable.

"There's other things that are more important than what you're thinking about. But you're young, I understand. You know, I was young once too," she chuckled as she winded up a timer, placing the casserole in the oven. I smirked and picked my book back up, but I couldn't find the motivation to get back to reading. My mind was still clouded with thoughts of Daryl and it didn't help that the house was quiet. Judith was upstairs sleeping and Carl off up there somewhere so there was nothing to distract me. The quiet of the day was abruptly disrupted by a shrill scream coming from outside, the sudden noise quickly silenced.

"The fuck was that," I questioned, getting off the couch. Carol hurried over to me and placed a gun in my hand. The exchange immediately put me on edge.

"Lock the doors after I leave," she ordered. "Make sure Judith is safe." Carl ran down the stairs with a large gun in his hands.

"What's going on? I heard a scream outside." He looked at the two of us with worry.

"Just stay inside," Carol yelled to us as she ran out the door, slamming it behind her. I rushed over to the window to see what was going on. A dead body laid in the street, a guy with an axe dismembering it. I pulled away from the window, my eyes widening and my heart beating faster.

"Oh my god," I whispered, stunned.

"What? What's going on," Carl questioned frantically. I quickly pulled the curtains closed to conceal that we were inside, just a few feet away from the intruder.

"Someone got through the walls," I informed him, turning around and rushing to close all the other sets of curtains on the ground floor. Gunshots began to pop off outside and was soon followed by a banging on the garage door. "Fuck," I cussed, frozen in my spot. "We need to hide now."

"Follow me," Carl demanded, hustling up the stairs. I followed him, my hands beginning to shake. I didn't wanna go through this again. Carl pulled me into a closet and shut the door behind him just as the door leading into the garage opened. I felt my heart sink to my stomach. I forgot to fucking lock it like Carol said to do. Carl and I stayed silent for a while, listening to various loud thumps from the intruder as they seemed to raid the house. He started to reach for the doorknob.

"What the hell are you doin'," I whispered, smacking his hand away.

"I'm gonna go down there," he answered confidently.

"You'll give us away," I hissed at him.

"I have a gun. I'll be fine."

"I have a gun too," I snapped back. "What if it's that guy from outside? He was huge and he had an axe! Who knows what he'll do to us, to Judith, if he overpowers you."

"I'll be fine," he repeated. "I've done this before."

"Fuck, Carl," I sighed, shaking my head in disappointment. I dreaded him going down there, but I knew he was gonna continue to fight me until I let him go. "Promise me, you'll yell for me or something if you need help."

"I will," he promised me, putting his hand back on the doorknob.

"Okay," I whispered. "Be careful." He slowly opened the door, raising his weapon. After he silently squeezed his way out of the door, I grabbed the doorknob and slowly pulled the door back so only a small sliver of light was visible just so I could see if anyone passed me and who it was when they did. I hugged my knees close to my chest as I waited for someone to make a noise.

"What are you doing," I heard Carl question with authority. I tightened my grip on my gun.

"I was just gonna leave," a light voice responded. It sounded like a young girl.

"You can't go back out there! You're staying here," Carl demanded. I guess she wasn't a threat if Carl was wanting her to stay in the house with us. I opened the closet door, cautiously making my to the stairs.

"They're just people. They're not any different from us," the girl sighed. As I made my way down the stairs, I could see Carl and a girl with long brown hair sitting back to back in the middle of the floor with their weapons up in different directions like they were waiting for someone to dare to break into the house. I put my gun down by my side.

"They are different from us," Carl told her, aggravated she'd ever compare us to those monsters outside. "We don't kill for sport."

"We do," she muttered. "We just don't realize it." Carl finally noticed me standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"Aften," he said, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink. The girl turned her head to look at me. "This is Enid."

"Hey," Enid greeted me, examining my presence.

"Hi," I mumbled, sitting on the couch. She looked familiar but I couldn't pinpoint where I've seen her around before.

"You're always with that one guy... what's his name," she inquired, twirling her knife in her hands.

"Daryl."

"Yeah, him. You guys dating or something?"

"Yeah," I answered, smirking. It gave me butterflies to say we were. It was such a good feeling to confirm our love for each other.

"I have a boyfriend too. His name's Ron. You've probably seen his mom, Jessie, around here somewhere," Enid stated, a blank expression on her face. It was quiet again until she asked me another question. "Where're your folks?"

"Dead," I blurted out. "Dead a long time ago."

"Mine too," she whispered. Enid made eye contact with me and smirked. I half-smiled back, that one small piece of information bringing us closer. I could tell it comforted her to know that another girl somewhat near her age was in the same shoes she was. The gunshots and screams seemed to worsen only as time passed. I wanted so badly to keep the conversation going to block it out and distract myself, but I had to stay alert just in case. I decided to look outside the window to see what the damage was. I carefully drew back the curtain just a smidge to see a boy was being closely chased by a dirty man. I didn't realize Enid had followed me over to the window to sneak a peek until she yelped out from behind me.

"That's Ron, she panicked, rushing over to the door.

"No," I hollered, jumping into action to prevent her from going outside. "You can't go out there!" I tried to grab her wrist and pull her back, but she slipped through my fingers and made it out onto the front porch. Carl hurried over and pushed his way outside, standing in front of the both of us with his gun raised. Before I could say anything else to both of them, Carl fired off a shot which brought the man chasing Ron to the ground. I stood in the door frame, fiddling with the gun I gripped tightly in my hand. Carl was already out in the street, making his way over to the wounded man who was now hollering out in pain. He was going to finish the job and save Ron for Enid.

"Please don't kill me! Don't kill me, man," the man cried out with false mercy. In one swift motion he grabbed Carl's gun, trying to turn it back around so he could kill Carl. I wanted to sprint over there but Carl put the man down so quickly I didn't have time to react. Ron scurried off, Enid taking off after him. Another round of gunshots that were rather close to the house started going off. I ducked back inside for safety.

"C'mon," I shouted, motioning for Carl to come back into the house. He bolted inside and slammed the door shut, locking it just as Carol's timer went off in the kitchen. I instinctively rushed over to the oven and opened it, grabbing the hot pads that sat on the counter and pulling out the casserole. I set it down on the stovetop and shut the oven, turning it off in the process. I sighed, staring at the pan. People were being murdered and attacked outside and this was what I was taking care of? I mean, I couldn't let it burn. A fire was the last damn thing we needed right now. I glanced over at the baby monitor that sat on the counter. The screen was black. I grabbed it and attempted to turn it on. Nothing happened. The batteries were dead.

"Shit," I muttered to myself. "Carl, check on Judith. I can't see anything on the baby monitor." Carl nodded and hustled upstairs. I opened drawers all around the kitchen, searching for a pair of batteries to put in the monitor so I could ease my panic of knowing if Judith was safe or not. A huge thud and a baby's cry came from upstairs, startling me. "Carl," I hollered up to him to see if he was alright.

"I'm okay," Carl yelled back, confirming his well-being. Another thud rang out but this time it was coming from inside the garage. I snatched up a knife and gripped it tightly in my hand. I slowly walked towards the door to lock it and prevent the intruder from coming in. The inside of the garage was now quiet. As I began to back away, a heavy footstep came from behind me. I whipped around and a dirty, lanky woman ran at me, shoving me up against the wall. The force from the sudden attacked caused the knife flew to fly out of my hand. I screamed out in distress as I struggled to fight back, attempting to push her away. I couldn't let her take over me. She realized I was trying to overpower her and she slammed my head against the wall. I fell to the ground, limp.

When I opened my eyes, the woman was clutching my knife in her hand, examining it. She chuckled to herself, proud of her work for taking over the house. Without her noticing, I quickly and quietly rose to my feet. I spotted another slightly smaller knife in my reach and grabbed it. There was no other way out of this other than killing her. Her group came in and threatened my family, slaughtered community members. She had to pay with her life in return. No one was gonna attack me and get away with it either. Not anymore.

I ran towards the woman, letting out a determined scream. She turned around, caught off guard by me being awake. I sunk my knife into her chest, gritting my teeth; I was full of anger. I plunged it into the woman's chest again as she screamed out in agony. Her blood splattered onto my clean clothes, painting them red. The woman sank to the floor. I climbed on top of her, straddling her. I began to stab her over and over while I let out a small scream of frustration each time the knife pierced her skin. Carl's frantic footsteps came down the stairs. I stabbed the woman one more time, her blood now spraying onto the wall. I stopped, sitting back and breathing heavily. A tear ran down my face. I wiped it away with my bloody hand, leaving a wet red streak across my cheek. Each passing moment I stared at the woman's face began to anger me even more. The stupid bitch tried to kill me. I was tired of people trying to hurt me and my family. They were to be met with no mercy. I stabbed her in the head. I gazed up at Carl. His eyes were wide like he was surprised by what I was capable of.

"I'm okay," I whispered, sighing shakily.